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 Illinois sits just next to the
bottom on the country’s fiscal health scale, according to a new study.
Findings produced by a Pew Charitable Trusts analysis see the already
beleaguered state reclining at 49 of 50 – second to last in the nation – in
terms of expenditures outpacing revenues between the years of 2002 and 2016.
Illinois’ revenue was 94.2 percent of expenses over that time period, according
to the study.
Illinois remains one of just two states with an annual budget shortfall
exceeding 5 percent. While this number might look small on paper, years of
ongoing deficits at this rate have resulted in a mountain of debt.
 The news won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s observed the half-baked
financial gimmicks offered by the General Assembly. The study reaffirms what
many Illinoisans already know. The crisis plaguing the Land of Lincoln’s
finances is not one characterized by a lack of revenue, but rather by a chronic
unwillingness to rein in spending.
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While many states have
made strides to balance their books throughout the recovery that
followed the financial crisis, stability has not been a shared goal.
Illinois sticks out as one of the 15 states that ran deficits in
fiscal year 2016. By no means a new development, Springfield has
proceeded to allow deficits to mount for each of the 15 years
accounted for in the Pew report – a fact that underlies the state’s
deep-seated spending problem.
Politicians who champion
tax hikes as a fiscal imperative for plugging the budget gap
continue to do so at their own peril. Refusal to confront systemic
dysfunction in the form of prudent policy reforms in favor of
unparalleled tax hikes sends the very tax base on which they depend
fleeing out of state.
Indeed, Illinoisans are already hampered by one of the most onerous
tax burdens in the nation, and see less of their income after taxes
than residents of every neighboring state.
If policymakers’ concern for the state’s alarming fiscal condition
is on par with their rhetoric, serious spending reform – not
counter-productive tax patch-ups – ought to be on the table.
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